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Yes Akali's shroud Looks busted, but lets talk counter play.

Cpy Payst·7/17/2018, 12:48:49 PM·13 votes·5,309 views

Many People have concerns about her w blocking tower shots, and rightly so, but it is not a rework to her original w only, it is too her entire kit. In previous seasons, when akali was a snowballing hyper carry, the reason why her shroud was annoying was because she could zone you off of cs, and if you had no skill shots, poke with her point and click harass. Though her main weakness was that until level 6 she had no gap closer to do a full damage combo onto you and hardly any wave clear besides her e, meaning before then if you poke her and try to trade when she goes up to cs she couldn't tower dive or all in you at her power spike.

So now with her new rework, I believe the new shroud is riot's answer for her to farm in lane. All her abilities are now skill shots, short ranged at that with exception to her e. I believe the counter play to her kit is that she will have a rough early game, as her q is her only aoe wave-clear tool that doesn't even deal bonus damage to minions until its maxed. Having the shroud give her immunity to spells and auto attacks allows her to safely cs, but doing so denies her the ability to trade with you. If you were a mage, like a ziggs for example, every time she would come up to cs you would throw an enhanced auto or bomb her, so she would be forced to shroud to cs, and if she were to trade, Akali would have too throw e, shuriken flip,(which is a narrow, hard to land skill shot mind you) to gap close, q and the auto atttack with passive and shroud away. She still has a level 6 power spike like she does before, but now it doesnt reset on kills and has less range then it does before. I understand that some of us still have nightmares of when an akali got fed off your mid and facerolled your entire team, but this isnt the same boogieman we had before, if anything, this is a healthier version that I'm actually excited to seeing as she is no longer a feast or famine champ, either 15/0 or 0/15 if she gets good roams.

Without more data, the cd of her w, damage ratios, and energy costs, all we can do is speculate. Remind you, we were wrong about Aatrox, and I believe the design team is competent enough to know that there is some counter play needed. So lets be productive, the rework is coming whether we like it or not, so lets discuss what we can do moving forward with her in our matches.

10 Comments

IP Masquerena7/17/2018, 1:09:09 PM6 votes

Here's a warning, you'll get downvote bombed because you dared to support the fact that she may not be busted.

People only look at her W skill and assume they are playing against the same Akali as live, with a better W, but as you said, that is not the case.

Her new W is interesting, but it's not her dive skill anymore, yes, it can be used as such if needed in combo with E, but it's her escape skill or "i need a bit more time". Also, as you said, all her kit is skill shot now, but then again, you are asking people to dodge skills,,,,like, I know it sounds salty and etc, but keep in mind the "I can't dodge every single one, and if she hits one, I'm dead" part of the community that doesn't know how to trade and expect skills, if I recall, one challenger youtuber (forgot the name, sorry) said in one of his vids that "many pros and challengers don't use reaction speed to dodge, but expectation, and when they believe the skill will come, they will dodge accordingly"

I will refrain for commenting on her stuff too much, but I will say that I am in love with the fact that her skill cap is so high now. That was what I wished for her since the moment she was confirmed for a rework.

As for splash arts, her base is worse imho, I liked the old one better, but not because of the sideboobs as others, but her pose. Blood Moon, both are nice, but since I have a hip fetish, you know where my money goes, as for All Stars purple > white.

Hethalean7/17/2018, 1:28:48 PM4 votes

I'm honestly not sure how much I like the idea of giving an assassin the ability to be safe about CS... But most of the meta assassins wave clear safely and better than mages anyway. That could just be bias on my part (then again I still always ban Zed if I'm mid)

Her ult now mini stuns which has some utility. Mainly in stopping channels (good luck trying to TP away from her basically).

Her shroud still seems on paper that it might still be pretty frustrating to play against. She returns to stealth really fast in the clip. It appears to be .25 seconds. To me it kind of screams out that playstyle that isn't really fun of "getting smashed up without much to do in return" while the ability is up.

It doesn't appear that she'll 'drain tank' like she did before this latest mini rework or have that windowed heavy healing like she currently does. She has some healing on Q, but that's max rank, so lvl 9+ which is decently in the game already

We will see. With her shroud the way it is, to me she feels like she'll still be feast or famine. Lacking the sustain in lane means she can get behind pretty bad by getting bullied out when her shroud is down, and her shroud seems like if she gets ahead, it seems like she'll feel stompy while using it since she'll just obliterate multiple people in it (again if ahead) while your ability to react is minimized... or maybe she won't since her kit is lacking those resets. Without the cooldowns it is hard to tell like you said.

Kai Guy7/17/2018, 9:27:40 PM1 votes

If obscure provides to be to strong for dives, a simple nerf Is that recent tower/champion damage extends the duration of her fade.

FlameHalbrdOkido7/17/2018, 10:08:44 PM1 votes

Very true and I like ur stance. U know the best thing they did with her? As a melee champ who can deal a great deal of damage in close combat if allowed to stick to her target, they encouraged her to sometimes play the distance game and back off, and this gives her and her opponent room to breathe

I forgot about when or where they learned it, but somewhere along the line (I think with Xin Zhao (tho he still annoys me with his unit cast dash)) they realized that it was kinda toxic and bad game design to allow melee champs who deal a lot of damage to STICK to targets they realized that either 1.) encouraging them to stick to targets 2.) punishing them for not sticking to targets 3.) allowing them to stick to targets wasn't healthy for them or their enemies for many reasons (its also why some ranged ability based champions are encouraged to come in closer for AA range(Zoe, Vel, ect)) And thus they started giving them more ranged abilities or passives/abilities that encouraged them to put themselves at a distance

Some recent examples include the new Xin Zhao, Camille, new Aatrox, Poppy, and now Akali to name a few

Her passive encourages her to back off if already in range, E actually MAKES her move backwards, W has a hole in the middle and if a target is in the hole she can't AA or it will reveal her, her Q slows only at max range.

So i hope they do the same for Yasuo, Pantheon, and Jax someday (and edit Xin a lil).

FlameHalbrdOkido7/18/2018, 1:31:23 AM1 votes

her passive and E can both force her to move out of the Stealth as well if she doesnt plant her movement, but if the target stands at the center she won't have a choice if she wants to use either he passive or her E, so thats something to keep in mind for counter play